In traditional African communities, a woman's most important
role is to be a mother. The ability to give birth, nurture and protect
children is celebrated in this wooden sculpture of an Akan
mother and child. In America we are also familiar with images of the
mother and child. What
examples can you think of?

In this Akan statue it is the woman who is the
focus of the work of art. Her firm body and the rolls of fat on the
neck represent fertility, while the decorative scarification
on the cheeks and hairstyle celebrate her physical beauty and indicate
her ethnic identity. Seated on a stool, she looks ahead with confidence
and composure, showing that she has a good character -- ideal qualities
for every married Akan woman. The type ofstool
upon which she sits indicates that she is a woman of high status.

The sculpture of the mother and child is covered in a layer of kaolin,
which is a white clay also put on children to protect them from diseases.

The pale color represents the spirit world, for this sculpture was kept
in a shrine and given offerings so that the mother or family who owned
it would stay well and prosper.